Why Laurent Bucyibaruta's trial matters

Emmanuel Murangira was one of few survivors of the Murambi massacres on April 21, 1994, during the Genocide against the Tutsi.  It is believed that less than 50 Tutsi survived. Murangira died in 2012 and his heart was always at Murambi as he served as a tour guide and witness to visitors of Murambi Genocide Memorial.

Twenty eight years after the genocide, many witnesses have died. They include key perpetrators who received direct orders from Laurent Bucyibaruta, the then Prefet of Gikongoro.

On July 12, after about 11 hours of deliberation, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced Bucyibaruta to 20 years in prison. When the judgment was read, he made no movement and showed no reaction. This was a won battle after 28 years of survivors seeking justice.

The court found Bucyibaruta guilty of public Incitement to commit Genocide because of his public speeches that defined the enemy as all members of the Tutsi ethnic group and urged his listeners to attack and kill the Tutsi.

Bucyibaruta participated in a joint criminal enterprise whose object, purpose, and foreseeable outcome was the commission of genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group, and persons identified as Tutsis or presumed to support the Tutsi in the former Gikongoro Prefecture, in Rwanda.

Bucyibaruta as prefet of Gikongoro acted with Faustin Sebuhura, Damien Biniga, Joseph Ntegeyintwali, Frodouard Havuga, Aloys Simba, Felicien Semakwavu, Emmanuel Nteziryayo, Charles Nyiridandi, Silas Mugerangabo, Celes Semigabo, Denys Kamodoka, Juvenal Ndabarinzi, Lt. Col Rwamanya Augustin, Joachim Hategekimana, Charles Munyaneza, and others.

On May 30, 2000, Bucyibaruta was arrested and indicted by the Office of the Prosecutor in Troyes on the basis of a complaint filed in the High Court of Paris on January 5, 2000, by the International Federation of Human rights (FIDH) and the League of Human Rights.

On June 6, 2000, he was put in detention. He appealed the decision and was released by the examining magistrate in December 2000. Nonetheless, he remained under judicial supervision.

In June 2007, the Prosecutor of the ICTR demanded from the Tribunal an authorization to defer the cases of Bucyibaruta and Wenceslas Munyeshykaya to a criminal court in France since the two were still under investigation in France. An agreement was concluded with France earlier in 2006 which allowed for such an arrangement.

But the political environment between Rwanda and France, considering the role of France in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi slowed the path of justice as Paris became a safe heaven for genocidaires. Very many of them got French citizenship.

Genocide survivors welcomed France’s good will to put on trial genocide fugitives, however a lot more efforts have to be made. Many other notorious Genocidaires living freely in that country need to be brought to justice.

France still harbors Rwandan genocide fugitives such as Dr. Sosthène Munyemana, Dr. Eugène Rwamucyo, Colonel Laurent Serubuga, Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, Cyprien Kayumba, Fabien Neretse alias Fabien Nsabimana, Callixte Mbarushimana, Stanislas Mbonampeka, Marcel Bivugabagabo, Isaac Kamali, Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Pierre Tegera, Octavian Ngenzi, Tito Barahira, Joseph Jabyarimana, Paul Camy (Kanyamihigo), Manasseh Bigwenzare, Venuste Nyombayire, Hyacinthe Rafiki Nsengiyumva, Enoch Kayondo, Claude Muhayimana, Felicien Baligira, Philippe Manier / Hatagekimana and Michel Bakuzakundi.

Rwanda has issued 42 international arrest warrants for alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in France, but only three have been executed. The UN Human Rights Council asked France, at its 29th session that took place in January 2018, to either try all genocidaires on its territory or extradite them to Rwanda.

In 2018, Rwanda condemned the recruitment of Genocide convict and fugitive Dr. Charles Twagira by Hospital Paul Doumer, a geriatric facility managed by Assistance publique des  hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) in Labruyère, France. Twagira was convicted of genocide crimes by Rwandan courts. During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Twagira was a regional director of health in the former prefecture of Kibuye, in western Rwanda. He is also one of the genocide planners in Kibuye Prefecture, where he incited the local population to commit genocide.

In 2009, Dr. Eugène Rwamucyo was suspended from his duties at a hospital in Maubeuge for alleged involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The same measure should be taken in the case of Dr.Twagira and other genocidaires prosecuted for genocide crimes.

France is not the safe heaven for genocide fugitives only. It protects other Rwandan criminals including thieves like JMV Ndagijimana

In October 1994, JMV Ndagijimana was the Foreign Affairs Minister. He was a member of the presidential delegation that traveled with the President in USA and the delegation brought money for Rwandan Missions (Washington and New York). Apart from the fact that in the immediate aftermath of the genocide, the government had no money to send them, none of the banks in Rwanda, including the Central Bank, were functional to effect a wire transfer.  Rwanda had been suspended from issuing traveller's cheques.  The government mobilised (mainly from the RPF) the sum of US$187,000  and gave it to Amb. Ndagijimana J.M.V.  to carry it with him for the two diplomatic missions. 

Upon arrival, the President asked Ndagijimana to bring money and they waited in vain. When the Rwandan delegation contacted the New York Police Department, they were told that Ndagijimana took a flight for Paris.  France was contacted but turned a blind eye before Ndangijimana landed on its soil.

Lately, Genocide survivors commend efforts by the French Justice system to bring to account genocide fugitives especially under the leadership of Emmanuel Macron. In May 2020, Felicien Kabuga, one of the key architects of the 1994 Genocide was arrested in France, once again putting the spotlight on the country’s link with mass murderers.

In 2016, Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira, two former mayors in eastern Rwanda, were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and given life sentences. In October 2021, a French court upheld the life sentence imposed on the two.

There is some hope.